HOUSTON—On Thursday night, South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg and nine other top-polling candidates will make their way on stage at Texas Southern University for the third round of the Democratic primary debates.

It’s an exciting time for both the city of Houston and the Lone Star State as a whole.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is thrilled to show off his city to the nation and hopes that voters that come out for the debate as strangers will leave as ambassadors for the city.

“Look, the eyes of the nation will be on Houston. It’s the first time 10 will all be on stage at the same time. To have the attention on the city of Houston is major, it doesn’t matter whether your democratic, republican, whatever, the very fact that people are coming to our city, that this debate is being hosted by Texas Southern University, the second largest HBCU in the country. That’s major, that’s significant,” Turner said.